Homebrew PCBs

Hello Steve, John and All,
 I had to run a sample of a redesigned board Saturday morning so I tried a
simple Scratch and Etch test of John's idea. 
Here are some fast notes:
I coated a small piece of 1 oz. single sided board stock with Dykem metal
layout fluid. (I did clean the board first with 320 wet or dry and a quick
wipe with lacquer thinner. Scribing lines through layout fluid coating
produces very clean marks with no chipping
A metal-scriber's weight alone is not quite enough to get a line down to
the copper, a little extra weight was needed. A light spring loading on the
plotter would probably be fine.
I also scribed some thicker lines with a 1/16" inch wide tool I had laying
on my bench.
The board was etched in Sodium Persulfate at 120 degrees F.
The Dykem layout fluid had no problem as a resist, in fact I'll probably
fill a pen and start using it to repair bad resist areas on proto boards.
Bottom line: The resulting etched scribe lines came out beautifully and the
Dykem cleans off easily with Scotch Brite or some light wet or dry sanding.
My only minor concern is the narrowness of the isolations produced by a
pointed scriber and soldering using a set of eyes that ain't what they were
10 years ago.
Denny


 
>> Very interesting idea.
>> You could use layout fluid for metal working. Most are a lacquer
>> type base
>> and scratch very cleanly since that's exactly what they're
>> designed for.
>> Dykem is one manufacturer, it's available in a couple of colors,
>> spray or
>> brush.
>> Denny
>
>Great idea. Anyone here have some and some etchant and want to try
>it and report back here? Nothing fancy, just coat a scrap of board
>and then scratch the surface with the scratching device held at 90
>degrees with only its own weight holding it down.
>
>Steve Greenfield
>
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